''Christopher's Movie Matinée'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by

Mort Ransen Mort Ransen (August 16, 1933 – September 4, 2021) was a Canadian film and television director, editor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his Genie Award-winning 1995 film ''Margaret's Museum''. Early life Ransen was born Moishe Socora ...

and released in 1968. Depicting the youth counterculture

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

movement in the

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

district of Yorkville, the film was unusual in that it directly engaged the teenagers as active participants rather than subjects, depicting their own debates about what kind of film Ransen should make about them and incorporating footage directly filmed by the youth with personal video cameras. The film includes the group organizing a protest against

Toronto Board of Control The Board of Control of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was a part of its municipal government until it was abolished in 1969. It served as the executive committee of the Toronto City Council. When it was initially created in 1896 by mandate of the provi ...

member

Allan Lamport Allan Austin Lamport, (April 4, 1903 – November 18, 1999) was mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from 1951 to 1954. Known as "Lampy", his most notable achievement was his opposition to Toronto's Blue laws which banned virtually any activ ...

's efforts to crack down on the hippie movement in the city;"Movie Matinee hidden from movie houses". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', February 22, 1969. it ends when the filmmakers are recalled to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

after being accused in the Toronto press of instigating the protest rather than merely depicting it. The film was named for, and includes music from, the contemporaneous album ''Christopher's Movie Matinée'' by influential Canadian

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

band 3's a Crowd. The film did not receive widespread theatrical distribution, instead being shown primarily in private screenings for schools and organizations until it was broadcast on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

in 1969. Ransen appeared in an episode of the network's documentary series '' New Film Makers'' on April 23, showing excerpts of the film, before the full feature film was broadcast in its entirety by the network's ''Canadian Feature Films'' series on April 27. It was also screened in the

Director's Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festival as a ...

stream at the

1969 Cannes Film Festival The 22nd Cannes Film Festival took place from 8 to 23 May 1969. Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti served as jury president for the main competition. The ''Grand Prix du Festival International du Film'', then the fetival's main prize, was awarde ...

. It earned a Certificate of Merit at the 1970

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...

and received a citation as the Recommendation of the Adult Education Centres Jury at the

International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg The Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (), often referred to by the German-language initialism IFFMH, is an annual film festival established in 1952 hosted jointly by the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg, the ...

References

Works cited

External links

* 1968 films Canadian documentary films National Film Board of Canada documentaries 1968 documentary films Films shot in Toronto Films directed by Mort Ransen Hippie films 1960s English-language films 1960s Canadian films English-language documentary films English-language Canadian films {{1960s-Canada-documentary-film-stub